Reports from Sudan say fighters from the opposition Umma militia have begun to return home from Eritrea in line with a deal struck with the Sudanese government.

Newspaper reports put the number of those returning to the eastern state of Kassala at between three-hundred-and-fifty and eleven-hundred.

The Umma leader, Sadiq al-Mahdi, son of a former prime minister, said he would return to Sudan next week to hold talks with the government on completing a comprehensive peace settlement.

He said his return had been made possible by the positive atmosphere created by the Sudanese government's declaration of a general amnesty and its appeal for opposition groups to return home.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service